MADRID (Reuters) – Spain will sell 30,000 doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to microstate Andorra, as part of its plan to redistribute excess vaccines, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
With less than 80,000 inhabitants, Andorra, a small country wedged between France and Spain, has reported 9,145 infections and 92 deaths since the COVID-19 pandemic started, official data shows.
As part of the European Union purchase agreements, Spain will receive 140 million of doses of the different vaccines that were developed, enough to immunise more people than its population of 47 million.
Some EU countries were made responsible for getting medicines to the states of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City, which depend on bigger neighbours for access.
“This is an exercise in responsibility and solidarity, as small countries are unable to sign contracts with pharmaceutical companies,” Spain’s Health minister Salvador Illa said on his Twitter account.
Spanish authorities said they will sell the vaccines at the same price they paid. The price has not been disclosed.
In common with other countries, Spain is racing to vaccinate residents of nursing homes, which were ravaged by the virus during in the first months of the pandemic. Spanish health services have begun giving second shots of coronavirus vaccines to the residents.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Editing by Inti Landauro and Barbara Lewis)
